he imagines, the selection of an
Ethnographical subject, like the one which will engage our attention this
evening; without further preamble, we will venture to discuss this
subject.
Under the title "Les Ecossais en
France," &c., there appeared, some time since, a French work, in two
robust quarto volumes—the result of twenty-five years of conscientious
research by a French savant, Monsieur Francisque Michel. It purports to
recapitulate, among other things, the career on French soil of Scotchmen,
ever since the days of Wallace, ambassador to France, down to modern
times. Monsieur Michel, of a certainty, has succeeded in investing with
deep interest the enquiry he has originated.
With your permission, we will,
to-night, attempt to investigate a cognate portion of his subject, from an
ethilological point of view, using the light he has thrown on the aims and
aspirations of Scotchmen in old France to follow the footsteps of their
compatriots in New France— we mean, in the present Province of
Quebec—heretofore, that of Lower Canada.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, - it shall be
our aim to point out to you the traces left by Scotchmen, in Canadian
history, in and round Quebec, from the dawn of Canadian history to modern
times. In those sanguinary passages-at-arms, by land and by sea, which
have made of our town and its environs classic oft.’ shall we meet with
the brawny descendant of Bruce and of Wallace, fearlessly brandishing dirk
or claymore in the busiest part of the fray, his motto.
Let us do or die."
Sandy, full fledged, is a many-sided
individual. A man of war—we will also find him suceessful tiller of the
soil—leading in the mart of commerce—in the bank parlor—at the head of
powerful trading ventures—in the